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Michael Small

On any given airline flight, only about seven percent of passengers purchase in-flight WiFi. But Michael Small, President and CEO of Gogo Air, which has equipped more than 4,000 planes (both commercial and business) with in-flight connectivity, points out that this percentage continues to grow steadily. Small is sure that Gogo will “find new services at a lower price point” and make their broadband faster. The challenge has been equipping planes with WiFi technology without taking them out of service. “When we were able to do that – essentially retrofitting a plane in a matter of hours – we really started to grow quickly,” he says.

Small believes that in-flight connectivity is shifting from perk to necessity. “This is mission critical. The system has to work every day. Initially, connectivity was viewed as a passenger amenity, but the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 issue will take it all to the other end and it will become a safety issue.”